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Missing From New York’s Gun Control Law

By Eleanor Randolph July 14, 2015 12:18 pmJuly 14, 2015 12:18 pm

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo.Credit Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly counted his 2013 gun control law as one of his greatest legislative trophies. He maneuvered the legislature into passing the NY-Safe Act shortly after the slaughter of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “I am proud to be a New Yorker today,” he bragged after the bill signing.“And not just because New York has the first bill, but because New York has the best bill.”

Now, Governor Cuomo’s best bill has an asterisk. Late Friday, the time of day when politicians tend to release documents they don’t want people to notice, the administration signed off on an odd “memorandum of understanding” with Republicans who want to repeal the Safe Act. The document appears to suspend a key part of the law by requiring Republican approval before it goes into effect.

The memorandum signed by James Malatras, the governor’s director of operations, states that State Senator John Flanagan, a Republican and the majority leader, must okay the creation of a database that would keep track of ammunition sales. The law required the administration to provide background checks to limit ammunition sales to those who can legally purchase guns.

Democrats went understandably ballistic. This kind of memorandum is usually signed by leaders of both legislative branches and the governor.

Missing was Speaker Carl Heastie, who represents the Democratic majority in the Assembly. Mr. Heastie called the memorandum “an ill-advised end run around the Legislature and the Safe Act.” State Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens, the deputy minority leader in the Senate, fumed that “this is dangerous stuff, knocking a whole house of the legislature off the table like that.”

Representatives of the Cuomo administration tried to downplay the agreement. Alphonso David, the governor’s chief counsel, insisted that it was “not very meaningful” and “illusory” and that it will not change the law or the process of funding it.

Republicans don’t see it that way. State Senator James Seward, who represents an upstate area where the NY-Safe Act is intensely unpopular, trumpeted the memorandum as “legally binding” and called it a “significant accomplishment” for those like him trying to repeal the law. Under the headline “Rolling Back the Safe Act,” the upstate Republican Senator Michael Nozzolio’s website proclaimed that “the Safe Act ammunition database and background check has been stopped” by the agreement.

Perhaps the idea was for the governor to have it both ways — allowing Republicans to claim they are killing off part of the gun control law while assuring Democrats that the Safe Act is secure and untouchable.

A database for those selling ammunition is an important tool in the fight against gun violence. Its effectiveness depends on whether Governor Cuomo fills this gap in the enforcement of the Safe Act anytime soon.